Government class instruction comparing Obama to Hitler draws public ire in Baldwin County

[TexasTowelie]

A controversial reading list was pulled after complaints from parents at Spanish Fort High School.


Complaints about a politically divisive curriculum taught by a Spanish Fort high school government instructor continued to surface before the Baldwin County School Board on Thursday.

The latest concerns, expressed during the board's monthly meeting in Bay Minette, focused on classroom instruction that allegedly included comparisons of President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler and criticism about government social welfare programs leading to "the nation's downfall."

Others claimed the AP Government class taught by Gene Ponder involves outdated materials and blogs to back up political claims, and utilizes non-scientific reasoning on issues such as gun control.

"This is not a small group of students misinterpreting or challenging a viewpoint," said Julia Coccaro, the high school student who first raised concerns about Ponder's choice of right-wing authors and celebrities in a summer reading list last year. That same list was pulled by the school system in June.

Read more: http://www.al.com/news/mobile/index.ssf/2018/01/post_131.html#incart_river_home_pop

[roscoeroscoe]

1. Next up, the Turner Diaries

I mean, jeez

[madaboutharry]

2. This teacher should be fired.

He should be fired, though not for being a right wing nut job. He should be fired for injecting his own personal political views into the coursework and for failing to teach an AP Government class. The class he is teaching is a class on far right American politics, which is not the curriculum.

[Fred Sanders]

10. To be fair the material was not part of the curriculum, it was an optional summer reading list.

Does not change much, but liberals like full facts, I think.

[secondwind]

3. Wow. Just......wow

[democratisphere]

4. The class should be identified as "Propoganda 101" where you receive a white sheet for passing.

[sharedvalues]

11. Propaganda for Billionaires 101.

You get a whte sheet and a big button that says “I am a sucker”.

[rownesheck]

5. Sadly

It seems, at least in towns across the south, right wingers are injecting themselves into the public school system undoubtedly to push their hard right nastiness. When my son was in 6th grade in a small town outside Beaumont, TX (it's a backwoods town known for its history of vile racism, Vidor) his "science" teacher asked all the kids in the class to raise their hand if they are christian. My son was the only student who didn't raise his hand. At that point, this vomitous piece of human excrement began scoffing at him and grilling him on what he believes. He explained to her that he believes in evolution and evidence based scientific theories.

I was so incensed when he told me this, i emailed the principal, who thankfully was fully in agreement with me and she removed that teacher from teaching for the rest of the year. Unfortunately, that scum sucking wretched beast was able to find a teaching job at a nearby district.

This happened 4 years ago, and I am still so proud of my son for being a 12 year old so brave in the face of extremism pushed by this "teacher". He still attends school in that district and is surrounded by tons of friends so thankfully, this horrific incident didn't cause him any social issues.

[raccoon]

9. GOOD FOR YOU. "Teachers" like the one your son was subjected to, don't belong in any school. nt

[underpants]

6. I feel like I got a little dumber just reading the names of the authors

Savage
Levin
Walter Williams
Boortz
Etc.

[sharedvalues]

7. Here's the counter - an educated, progressive reading list on our political issues

"Don't Think of An Elephant" - George Lakoff (on conservative motivations, propaganda, and donors)

"Conservatives Without Conscience" - John Dean (ex-GOP)

"Lies: and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them" - Al Franken (on propaganda media)

"The Authoritarians" - Bob Altemeyer (on how conservatism is anti-democracy)

"Shock Doctrine" - Naomi Klein (on how GOP achieves their political goals, like the Iraq War)

"What's the Matter With Kansas?" Thomas Frank (how GOP billionaires, Koches, ruined the KS economy)

"It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism" - Mann and Ornstein (two incredibly mainstream DC historians)

"The Economics of Inequality" - Piketty (The seminal economist of our time, on his seminal issue)

"Merchants of Doubt" - Oreskes (how corporations use PR to achieve their goals)

"Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right" - Meyer

"Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future" - Mooney


-------------------------

Anyone else have suggestions? We should put together a Progressive Reading List.

[hedda_foil]

8. OMG! This is for an AP government class.